Uncomfortable about child sponsorship incentive

November 5, 2009 in Christian Living

I am a massive fan of Compassion.

I love the fact that they care for disadvantaged children. I love the fact that they are unashamedly Christian. When I heard the CEO of Compassion Australia, Paul O’Rourke, speak several years ago I was impressed by his faith and commitment to the cause of releasing children from poverty, in Jesus’ name. All this is to make very clear, Compassion does a great work.

However, I saw a promotion today that made me feel uncomfortable.

In an effort to encourage people to sponsor a child, the United States branch of Compassion is running an online promotion to sponsor a child and receive two Veggietales DVDs:

Compassion Veggietales promotion

I’m all for getting more child sponsors, but something about this promotion made me feel a little uncomfortable. Perhaps I feel uncomfortable because this kind of promotion is so common in our world (e.g. “buy two pizzas, get a free coke and garlic bread”). Perhaps I feel uncomfortable because the intrinsic value of the children themselves should be a good enough incentive to sponsor a child. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just doesn’t sit well with me as a marketing strategy.

What do you think?

  • http://joannamuses.com Joanna

    Hmmm. The thing that bothers me here is that it may encourage impulse sponsorships to get the gift. Child sponsorship is a long term financial commitment so not one people should be making lightly. If a DVD makes the difference, the person is probably not properly able to make that commitment.

  • http://www.dylanmalloch.com Dylan

    Doesn’t bother me. Of all the things that ‘Christians’ do in the USA, I think this ranks very low on the scale of ‘concerning’…

  • Chris Ashton

    I love the episode where them penguins go into space….genius!

  • Tim

    Well, personally I don’t think this strategy encourages the right attitude in giving. God see’s our motivations for giving and I’m not sure it would please him if the reason we made a decision to give was because it suddenly became more appealing. i.e material gains.

    It’s a worry, because it demonstrates that the marketing team for a charity organisation don’t understand God’s will for our giving, or have chosen to ignore it.

  • Alex

    Here, here Tim. It feels like it’s cheapening those precious lives. A commodity to be purchased. What next? Steak knives? Promote poverty for what it is – no gimmicks!